Study tentatively links flu in pregnancy and autism

Study tentatively links flu in pregnancy and autism - Kids whose mothers had the flu while pregnant were slightly more likely to be diagnosed with "infantile autism" before age three in a new Danish study. But the children's overall risk for the developmental disorder was not higher than that of other kids.

Researchers said it's possible that activation of a mother's immune system - such as by infection with the influenza virus - could affect a fetus's developing brain. But they urged caution with the new findings, especially because of statistical limitations in their number-crunching.

"I really want to emphasize that this is not something you should worry about," said lead author Dr. Hjordis Osk Atladottir, from the University of Aarhus.

"Ninety-nine percent of women with influenza do not have a child with autism," she told Reuters Health. "If it were me that was pregnant, I wouldn't do anything different from before, because our research is so early and exploratory."

Her team's data came from a study that originally recruited more than 100,000 pregnant women in Denmark between 1996 and 2002. The women were called multiple times during their pregnancies, and once afterward, to ask about any new infections they had or medications they had taken.

The new report includes 96,736 kids born from that initial cohort who were between 8 and 14 years old at the time of the analysis.

Using a country-wide register of psychiatric diagnoses, Atladottir and her colleagues found that 1 percent of all kids were diagnosed with autism, including 0.4 percent with infantile autism - in which the main symptoms all show up before age three.

There was no link between a range of infections in pregnancy - including herpes, coughs and colds and cystitis - and the chance a baby would develop autism or infantile autism, according to the report published Monday in Pediatrics.

And among 808 women who reported having the flu while pregnant, there was no increased risk of autism in their children. However, seven of those babies, or 0.87 percent, were diagnosed with infantile autism, compared to the rate of 0.4 percent among kids in general.

There was also an increased - albeit sometimes borderline - risk of both autism and infantile autism in babies of women who had fevers for a week or more during pregnancy, as well as mothers who took some types of antibiotics.

Atladottir said there is some research in rodents suggesting women's activated immune cells can cross the placenta and affect chemicals in a fetus's brain. But how those findings apply to humans is still a question mark.

"It's all very unsure now - we don't really know anything," she said.

In the United States, about one in 88 children is now diagnosed with autism or a related disorder.

One limitation of the new study, the researchers noted, is that they did 106 statistical tests comparing the risk of autism or infantile autism with various infections and drugs.

In medical research, a significant finding is typically considered one where there is less than a five percent likelihood the result would have occurred by chance.

But when so many calculations are done, scientists would expect that at least some would pass this test of significance, even if there is no real link between the pregnancy variables and autism.

In addition, women's flu reports weren't confirmed by doctors - and the frequency of mistaking the flu for another infection, or vice versa, is "likely to be considerable," the researchers noted.

Because of those limitations, Atladottir said the findings could encourage future research, but shouldn't be at the front of pregnant women's minds.

"We don't want to create panic," she said.

Still, one expert who wasn't involved in the new study thought the researchers were "soft peddling" their conclusions.

"It is highly recommended that women avoid infection during pregnancy, and there are a variety of very practical ways to decrease the likelihood of this," Paul Patterson, who studies the immune system and brain development at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Reuters Health by email.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend all women get a flu vaccine during pregnancy - in part because serious flu complications are more common in pregnant women.

But, said Patterson, "It is also worth emphasizing that even though the risk (of infantile autism) is significantly increased, the risk is still quite low." ( Reuters Health )

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Mothers of Kids With Autism Earn Less

Mothers of Kids With Autism Earn Less, Study Shows - Mothers of children with autism and autism spectrum disorders earn significantly less than what mothers of children who have no health limitations earn, a new study has found.

These moms even earn less than mothers of children with other health limitations.

Mothers of children with autism earned, on average, less than $21,000 a year, the researchers found. That was 56 percent less than mothers whose children had no health limitations and 35 percent less than mothers whose children had other health limitations.

In addition, moms who have children with autism are 6 percent less likely to be employed, and work an average of seven hours less per week than mothers of children with no health limitations, the study found.

While the researchers did not find differences in fathers' incomes, the overall income in families that have children with autism suffers, said lead researcher David Mandell, associate director of the Center for Autism Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and associate director of the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

"Families of children with autism experience a 28 percent reduction in income compared to families with typically developing children," he said. The family incomes of parents whose children have autism is also less, 21 percent, than those whose children have other health limitations, Mandell found.

The study is published online March 19 and in the April print issue of Pediatrics.

For the study, Mandell and his colleagues looked at data from the 2002-2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. This ongoing survey of U.S. households collects detailed information on medical conditions, health services use and expenditure, and other data.

The researchers looked at 261 children with autism spectrum disorders, nearly 3,000 with other health limitations and more than 64,000 with no health limitations.

About 67 percent of the children with autism had mothers who worked outside the home. About 92 percent of the kids with autism had working fathers.

Autism spectrum disorders now affect about one in 110 children in the United States. The spectrum includes a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, all marked by difficulties in social and communication skills and repetitive behaviors.

A mother may cut back work hours or drop out of the workforce to help supervise their child's care, including advocating for services, according to the researchers.

The costs of caring for children with other disabilities is about 5 percent to 12 percent of family income, the researchers noted, citing other research.

The researchers didn't have information on how severe the autism was in each case, so Mandell couldn't say if costs are more or go up if the autism is more severe.

The findings don't surprise Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York.

"Basically, autism is taking a double toll," he said. Besides the increased costs for health care and other services, the reduced earnings also have an impact, Adesman pointed out.

Parents can and should reach out for help, the experts stressed.

"Take advantage of services available," Adesman said.

For example, Mandell noted, a parent group in Philadelphia will send someone knowledgeable to go with a parent of a child with autism to the school meeting to develop the educational plan.

Peter Bell, executive vice president for services and programs for Autism Speaks, an advocacy group, said the task of caring for a child with autism can be daunting.

"The study isn't surprising for families who live with autism every day," he said. "When their child is diagnosed with autism, it is a game changer." ( HealthDay News )

READ MORE - Mothers of Kids With Autism Earn Less

Autism Patients Might Benefit from Drug Therapy

Autism Patients Might Benefit from Drug Therapy - Researchers have found a drug that can help patients with Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited intellectual impairment (formerly known as mental retardation), stay calm in social situations by treating their anxiety.

Dr. Elizabeth Berry-Kravis and her team found that a drug called Arbaclofen reduced social avoidance and repetitive behavior in Fragile X patients, especially those with autism, by treating their anxiety. The drug increases GABA, a chemical in the brain that regulates the excitatory system in Fragile X patients, who have been known to have too little GABA to do the job otherwise, causing their excitatory systems to "signal out of control" and make them anxious.

Such patients have been known to cover their ears or run away at their own birthdays because they are overwhelmed by the attention, but one trial participant said he was able to enjoy his birthday party for the first time in his life while he was on Arbaclofen, she said.

"I feel like it's kind of the beginning of chemotherapy when people first realized you could use chemotherapy to treat cancer patients instead of just letting them die," said Berry-Kravis, a professor of neurology and biochemistry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago who has studied Fragile X for more than 20 years.

She said people used to think Fragile X patients couldn't be helped either, but she and her team have proven that by using knowledge from existing brain mechanism studies, doctors can select medications to target specific problems in Fragile X patients' brains.

Fragile X syndrome is a change in the FMRI gene, which makes a protein necessary for brain growth, and studies indicate it causes autism in up to one-third of patients diagnosed with it. Unlike Fragile X syndrome, which is genetic, autism is a behavioral diagnosis characterized by an inability to relate to other people or read social cues. Autism and Fragile X are linked, but not mutually exclusive. A core symptom of both is social withdrawal.

Sixty-three patients with Fragile X participated in Berry-Kravis's placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial from December 2008 through March 2010. Of those, the patients with autism showed the biggest improvements in social behavior, Berry-Kravis said.

To psychologist Lori Warner, who directs the HOPE Center at Beaumont Children's Hospital, the study is exciting because when her autistic patients are anxious, they often have a harder time learning the social cues they can't read on their own.

"Reducing anxiety opens up your brain to be able to take in what's happening in an environment and be able to learn from and understand social cues because you're no longer frightened of the situation," Warner said.

She works mostly with autism patients, and although some do have Fragile X as well, most do not.

Fragile X affects one in 4,000 men and one in 6,000 to 8,000 women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although Arbaclofen worked best on autistic Fragile X patients, further studies will be needed to prove whether it can help all autism patients, not just those with autism caused by Fragile X.

"There's a difference between one person's brain and another in how it's set up," Berry-Vargis said. "This is not a magic cure. It's a step." ( ABC News )

READ MORE - Autism Patients Might Benefit from Drug Therapy

Autistic man survives 3-week ordeal in Utah desert

Autistic man survives 3-week ordeal in Utah desert - The father of a 28-year-old autistic man who barely survived three weeks in remote southern Utah says his son was an experienced mountaineer but was out of his element in the harsh desert.

John LaFever said Friday that his son William made one crucial mistake: setting off for a 150-mile journey along the wild Escalante River without food or equipment that was apparently stolen before his trip got under way.

"He didn't realize how arduous his journey would be," LaFever told The Associated Press. "We didn't know what he was heading into, either. Thank God he's alive."

Authorities say William LaFever, of Colorado Springs, Colo., apparently didn't realize the distance involved with his plan to hike from Boulder, Utah, to Page, Ariz.

William LaFever is being treated for starvation and dehydration at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, his father said.

"He started out this journey with everything he needed to survive — but it got stolen from him," John LaFever said. "He thought he could do this on his own without any supplies or equipment, which was a bad decision."

The man has spent a lot of time backpacking in the Colorado mountains and "never had any problems at all," John LaFever said. Utah's twisting, arid canyons turned out to be "totally different."

He traveled about 50 miles over at least three weeks before he was found Thursday by a Utah Highway Patrol helicopter.

"He was in the right spot when the helicopter flew overhead. If he was under a tree they wouldn't have seen him," John LaFever said. "He wasn't able to walk, he was so weak. He was barely able to get an arm up to wave to the helicopter. When they landed, he just wanted to talk to somebody. He's going to recover from this."

William LaFever's mother, Anita Jennings of Colorado Springs, said Friday she was still "kind of in shock."

"I'm just so thankful they found him," she said.

Jennings said her son believes he is an American Indian and recently gave up his Colorado Springs apartment and sold many of his possessions to go to the Utah desert.

She said his family tried to dissuade him but couldn't.

"He's just a little stubborn. There's nothing you can do. He's very strong-willed," she said.

Utah Highway Patrol pilot Shane Oldfield said when he spotted LaFever, the man was lying in the river wearing only his underwear.

Oldfield said LaFever was severely emaciated, estimating the 6-foot-tall man weighed less than 100 pounds when they found him.

Oldfield described LaFever as "borderline belligerent" because he initially refused to get in the helicopter.

"He wanted at least 15 to 20 minutes to just sit there and we wanted to get him to the hospital," Oldfield said.

They compromised, giving him about eight minutes to eat a granola bar and drink some Gatorade before taking flight.

"He knew he needed to be rescued, but he wasn't in any hurry," Oldfield said. "He hadn't seen anybody in a long time."

Oldfield said LaFever was talkative, and recalled eating a frog a day earlier.

"That didn't sit too well in his stomach so he didn't want to do that again," Oldfield said.

The pilot said he believes LaFever's mental condition allowed him to look at the situation different than an average person.

"It was a spiritual experience for him," Oldfield said. "He viewed it as a positive, life-changing event. He felt the desert was calling him. That's why he went on the trip in the first place.

"I think he's lucky to be alive," the pilot added.

The hiker survived on frogs, roots and water from the river in "some of the most rugged, unforgiving terrain you will find anywhere on Earth — jagged cliffs, stone ledges, sandstone, sagebrush, juniper," Garfield County sheriff's spokeswoman Becki Bronson said.

Deputy Ray Gardner, who had recently completed training in search and rescue operations for people with autism and was aboard the helicopter, said LaFever would not have survived another 24 hours. He learned in his training that people with autism are typically attracted to water, so they flew along the river during their search.

LaFever was trying to get to Page because his father told him he would wire money to him in there, the sheriff's department said.

William LaFever had called his father on June 6 or 7 to say he was hiking in the Boulder area with his dog, and that someone had stolen some of his hiking gear and he had run out of money. John LaFever told his son to catch a ride to Page to collect the money.

Unbeknownst to his father, William LaFever apparently decided to hike down the Escalante River and then hitch a boat ride along Lake Powell to Page, rather than try to catch a ride, the sheriff's department said.

At some point, LaFever's dog left him, Gardner said. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Autistic man survives 3-week ordeal in Utah desert

Step By Step, a Highly Regarded Autism Treatment Center, Announces Addition of Young Adult Independent Living Program

Step By Step, a Highly Regarded Autism Treatment Center, Announces Addition of Young Adult Independent Living Program - Central Ohio nonprofit dedicated to treating the affects of Autism Spectrum Disorder adds independent living and social skills program for individuals ages 18 through 25.

Step By Step Academy, a highly regarded nonprofit autism treatment center in Columbus, Ohio, today announced the addition of a young adult independent living and social skills program to its continuum of care offerings for individuals ages 18 through 25 who are affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and other developmental disabilities. The program structure involves bi-weekly, one-hour classes. This program is designed to equip and increase participant’s level of functioning areas including independent living, healthy relationships, community safety and social skills, among others.

Step By Step’s young adult independent living program is designed for high-functioning individuals with ASD or Asperger syndrome who have transitioned out of high school and are getting ready for adulthood.

Simply put, the program helps young adults learn to perform simple tasks such as: how to shop at the grocery store, how to manage their money, how to use the microwave, how to cook simple menu items, understanding the importance of nutrition, proper hygiene management, cleanliness and laundry care.

The ultimate goals of the young independent living adult program is to teach social, life and vocational skills to individuals affected by ASD and to ensure they function to their highest potential in their community without facing being singled out from their peers, said Michele LaMarche, executive director of Step By Step.

“There are very few treatment options for young adults with ASD or Asperger syndrome as most of the established programs are for children,” said LaMarche. “There are very few products and programs designed to meet the needs of the individual that is transitioning from the educational system to beyond. This new program fills that need, and is another important program offered by Step By Step to help enrich countless lives in and throughout the greater Columbus area.”

Classes will be held at the Step By Step campus, 445 E. Dublin Granville Road, Building G in Worthington, Ohio. Additional sessions are scheduled at Step By Step’s partner agency, the Rosemont Center, 2440 Dawnlight Ave., Columbus, Ohio. ( PRWeb )

READ MORE - Step By Step, a Highly Regarded Autism Treatment Center, Announces Addition of Young Adult Independent Living Program

Small babies at higher risk of autism, not Asperger

Small babies at higher risk of autism, not Asperger - Babies born small or prematurely go on to develop autism at higher rates, although the risk is still small, according to a new study from Finland.

The research is part of a global push to identify the culprits behind the developmental disorder and the recent uptick in its occurrence, which has had scientists scratching their heads for years.

"Previous reports of how birth weight or gestational age is associated with autism have not been consistent," Dr. Andre Sourander, a psychiatrist at Turku University, told Reuters Health by email.

"Because autism spectrum disorders are one of the major challenges in child mental health it is extremely important to get more understanding of its causes," Sourander said.

Autism spectrum disorders, which range from mild Asperger syndrome to severe mental retardation and social disability in childhood autism, are diagnosed in about one in 88 children in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new results, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, are based on almost two decades' worth of data from more than one million births in Finland.

As of 2005, the rate of autism in the Northern European country was 9 per 10,000 children in Finland, whereas Asperger was diagnosed in 14.5 children out of 10,000.

After accounting for the mother's age, smoking, number of previous births and other factors, Sourander's team found an increased risk of autism, but not Asperger syndrome, in preemies and babies that were very small at birth.

For instance, those who weighed less than 1,500 grams, or 3.3 pounds, at birth had three times the odds of developing autism.

However, because autism is relatively rare, most children who are born very small don't end up with autism, said Sourander.

No one is certain why some children develop autism spectrum disorders, but scientists assume it's caused by an interplay between genes and environment, such as infections or other medical problems during pregnancy. ( Reuters Health )

READ MORE - Small babies at higher risk of autism, not Asperger

Schizophrenia, autism may be linked in families

Schizophrenia, autism may be linked in families -- Families with a history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are also more likely to have a child with autism, new research from Sweden and Israel suggests.

Researchers found that kids whose parents or siblings had been diagnosed with schizophrenia were almost three times more likely to have an autism spectrum disorder, including autism and Asperger syndrome.

The link was weaker for bipolar disorder, but still consistent, according to findings published this week in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Most people with a family history of one of these disorders actually get nothing - the vast majority in fact," said Dr. Patrick Sullivan, the study's lead author from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Still, he told Reuters Health, "Maybe there is something that is more fundamental but common to both," such as certain changes in gene patterns that are passed from parents to children.

The number of autism diagnoses in the United States has been rising, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates one in 88 kids has an autism spectrum disorder. That's up from one in 150 a decade ago.

One of the questions in recent autism research has been how much genetics is involved in who gets the condition, versus the prenatal or early childhood environment.

Sullivan and his colleagues note that autism used to be considered the childhood version of schizophrenia, before researchers learned more about the two disorders. And some research has continued to suggest certain genetic changes are common in both conditions, as well as in bipolar disorder.

So for the new study, the researchers analyzed information from three separate databases, including two that tracked kids and families in Sweden and their medical diagnoses and a third that recorded data on all Israeli citizens entering the army draft, including sibling pairs.

All in all, Sullivan's team had data on more than 30,000 young people with autism.

The researchers found that in the Swedish studies, kids whose parent or sibling had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to family medical records, were 2.6 to 2.9 times more likely to have autism. The trend was the same for siblings of teens with schizophrenia in Israel.

When a parent had bipolar disorder, on the other hand, kids were 1.6 to 1.9 times more likely to have autism or another autism spectrum disorder.

"It's been questioned for many years, whether there's a relationship" between schizophrenia and autism, said Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a neurologist from the Lurie Center for Autism at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Lexington, Massachusetts.

"In fact, I think those of us that see a lot of patients with autism have seen this relationship in relatives for a long time," he added.

Sullivan said there are certain rare genetic mutations that seem to predispose people to both autism and schizophrenia.

And there could be other gene variations, he said, where differences in a person's environment in the womb or growing up could influence whether the same mutation ends up leading to schizophrenia, autism or nothing.

"Just because two things share a risk factor doesn't mean that they're the same thing," Sullivan added. "The needs of people with autism and schizophrenia, and the treatments that we know work for one or the other, don't overlap very well."

Zimmerman, who wasn't involved in the current research, told Reuters Health there are still many questions about how the conditions may be related.

The new study "is important because it makes us think," he said. "It doesn't tell us whether (autism and schizophrenia) are genetic or environmental - certainly both are still possible - but it makes us think there might be relationships between the two." ( Reuters Health )

READ MORE - Schizophrenia, autism may be linked in families

What child prodigies and autistic people have in common

What child prodigies and autistic people have in common - Child prodigies evoke awe, wonder and sometimes jealousy: how can such young children display the kinds of musical or mathematical talents that most adults will never master, even with years of dedicated practice? Lucky for these despairing types, the prevailing wisdom suggests that such comparisons are unfair — prodigies are born, not made (mostly). Practice alone isn't going to turn out the next 6-year-old Mozart.

So finds a recent study of eight young prodigies, which sought to shed some light on the innate roots of their talent. The prodigies included in the study [PDF] are all famous (but remain unidentified in the paper), having achieved acclaim and professional status in their fields by the ripe age of 10. Most are musical prodigies; one is an artist and another a math whiz, who developed a new discipline in mathematics and, by age 13, had had a paper accepted for publication in a mathematics journal. Two of the youngsters showed extraordinary skill in two separate fields: one child in music and art (his work now hangs in prestigious galleries the world over), and the other in music and molecular gastronomy (the science behind food preparation — why mayonnaise becomes firm or why a soufflé swells, for example). He became interested in food at age 10 and, by 11, had carried out his first catering event.

All of the prodigies had stories of remarkable early abilities: one infant began speaking at 3 months old and was reading by age 1; two others were reading at age 2. The gastronomist was programming computers at 3. Several children could reproduce complex pieces of music after hearing them just once, at the age most kids are finishing preschool. Many had toured internationally or played Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall well before age 10.

Six of the prodigies were still children at the time of the study, which is slated for publication in the journal Intelligence. The other two participants were grown, aged 19 and 32.

The study found a few key characteristics these youngsters had in common. For one, they all had exceptional working memories — the system that holds information active in the mind, keeping it available for further processing. The capacity of working memory is limited: for numbers, for example, most people can hold seven digits at a time on average; hence, the seven-digit phone number. But prodigies can hold much more, and not only can they remember extraordinarily large numbers, but they can also manipulate them and carry out calculations that you or I might have trouble managing with pencil and paper.

Working memory isn't just the ability to remember long strings of numbers. It is the ability to hold and process quantities of information, both verbal and non-verbal — such as, say, memorizing a musical score and rewriting it in your head. All the children in the study scored off the charts when tested on measures of working memory: they placed in at least the 99th percentile, with most in the 99.9th percentile.

Surprisingly, however, the study found that not all of the prodigies had high IQs. Indeed, while they had higher-than-average intelligence, some didn't have IQs that were as elevated as their performance and early achievements would suggest. One child had an IQ of just 108, at the high end of normal.

There was something else striking too. The authors found that prodigies scored high in autistic traits, most notably in their ferocious attention to detail. They scored even higher on this trait than did people diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism that typically includes obsession with details.

Three of the eight prodigies had a diagnosed autism spectrum disorder themselves. The child who had spoken his first words at 3 months, stopped speaking altogether at 18 months, then started again when he was just over two-and-a-half years old; he was diagnosed with autism at 3. What's more, four of the eight families included in the study reported autism diagnoses in first- or second-degree relatives, and three of these families reported a total of 11 close relatives with autism. In the general population, by contrast, about 1 in 88 people have either autism or Asperger’s.

Other unusual parallels between prodigies and those with autism: they're both more likely to be male (though that finding may be due in part to the failure to recognize either girls on the autism spectrum or, perhaps, girls' hidden talents) and both are associated with difficult pregnancies, suggesting that uterine environment may play a role in their development. In the math whiz's case, for example, his mother "started labor nine times between the 29th and 37th weeks of her pregnancy and required medication to stop the labor. During the 35th week of her pregnancy, her water broke and she had a 105-degree fever from an infection in her uterus. The child prodigy did not have a soft spot at delivery," the authors write.

When Asperger’s was first described in 1944 by Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, he referred to children with the syndrome as “little professors” because of their prodigious vocabularies and precocious expertise, and because they tended to lecture others endlessly without being aware of their own tediousness. Poor social skills and obsessive interests characterize the condition.

Yet, despite the obvious similarities, very little research has been done on the connection between autism and extreme talent. One previous study, published in 2007, did find that close relatives of prodigies — like close relatives of people with autism — tended to score higher on autistic traits, particularly in problems with social skills, difficulty switching attention and intense attention to detail. Other than that, however, the issue hasn't been studied systematically, beyond the observation that autism is often seen in savants, or people with exceptional abilities who have other simultaneous impairments.

Prodigies, in contrast, appear to benefit from certain autistic tendencies while avoiding the shortfalls of others. On a standard assessment of traits associated with autism, the prodigies in the current study scored higher than a control group on all measures, including attention to detail and problems with social skills or communication (though this result was not statistically significant, probably because the sample was so small). But they also scored significantly lower than a separate comparison group of people who had Asperger's — except on the attention-to-detail measure, in which they outshone everyone.

“One possible explanation for the child prodigies’ lack of deficits is that, while the child prodigies may have a form of autism, a biological modifier suppresses many of the typical signs of autism, but leaves attention to detail — a quality that actually enhances their prodigiousness — undiminished or even enhanced,” the authors write.

In other words, these children may have some genetic trait or learned skill that allows them to maintain intense focus, without compromising their social skills or suffering from other disabilities that typically accompany autism spectrum disorders. Comparing these children with those who have full-blown autism or Asperger's could therefore potentially help pinpoint what goes wrong in those who develop disabling forms of autism and what goes right in others with similar traits who simply benefit from enhanced abilities.

The current study doesn't tread that ground, but its findings do fit in with the intense world theory of autism, which posits how the disorder may arise. The theory holds that certain patterns of brain circuitry cause autistic symptoms, including excessive connectivity in local brain regions, which can heighten attention and perception, and diminished wiring between distant regions, which can lead to a sort of system overload. In both animal and human studies, this type of brain wiring has been associated with enhanced memory and also with amplified fear and sensory overstimulation. The former is a good thing; the latter may cause disability.

The intense world theory propounds that all autism carries the potential for exceptional talent and social deficits. The social problems, the theory suggests, may ensue from the autistic person's dysfunctional attempts — social withdrawal and repetitive behaviors, for instance — to deal with his heightened senses and memory.

It's possible, then, that the wiring in prodigies' brains resembles that of an autistic person's, with tight local connections, except without the reduction in long-distance links. Or, their brains may function just like those with autism, but their high intelligence allows them to develop socially acceptable ways of coping with the sensory overload.

Although some researchers — and much of the public, influenced by popular books like journalist Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers — argue that prodigious expertise can be acquired with sheer effort, 10,000 hours of practice to be exact, the current findings suggest that natural talents can blossom in far less time. “[Many prodigies] displayed their extreme talent before reaching 10 years of age, undercutting the nurture-based theories that credit contemporary training techniques and upwards of 10 years of deliberate practice as the root of all exceptional achievement,” the authors write.

That doesn't mean all is lost for the rest of us, notes Scott Barry Kaufman, a cognitive psychologist at New York University. “There is research showing the positive benefits of working memory training,” he wrote on his blog on Psychology Today's website, suggesting that practice could take us closer to perfect.

The current study is a small one, and much more research needs to be done to elucidate the connections between highly gifted children and those with autism spectrum conditions. But the findings strongly suggest that such connections exist. They also caution against characterizing the genetic roots of conditions like autism — or other potentially disabling problems like mood disorders, which have been linked with exceptional creativity — as wholly negative. If the same "risk" genes may lead to both debilitating autism and great intellectual gifts, we need to understand them far better before we label them as unwanted. ( Time.com )

READ MORE - What child prodigies and autistic people have in common

Can some children simply 'grow out' of autism? One mother tells how her son's life has been transformed

Can some children simply 'grow out' of autism? One mother tells how her son's life has been transformed - When Josh Tutin was three years old, he was diagnosed with autism so severe that experts believed it unlikely he would ever relate to other people.

Yet now the Bristol boy is a thoughtful, joyful nine-year-old who attends a mainstream school.

Has he grown out of his condition? New research by a prestigious American university claims that not only is this possible, it’s also common.

'Some people say he (son Josh) has grown out of it (autism). But they have no idea of the hard work that has been involved,' said Renitha Tutin

A new study in the respected journal Pediatrics reports that up to one third of children diagnosed with autism at a young age no longer display symptoms when they are older.

And the behavioural transformation seen in Josh over the past six years has certainly gone beyond the wildest hopes of his parents.

As a toddler, Josh seemed irretrievably trapped inside his own troubled world.

‘We couldn’t have a cot because he would fling himself against it,’ says Josh’s mother, Renitha, 39, a chartered accountant who teaches at Bristol University.

‘He just slept lying on me. When he was awake he would scream and scream.’

If Renitha wanted something as simple as a shower, her husband, Richard, a lecturer in accounting and finance, also at Bristol University, would have to be on hand.

‘I would pass Josh to Richard and he would have to hold him while he screamed,’ she remembers.

‘There was one day when Josh had tantrum after tantrum, and I was so upset I started crying, and Josh just looked at me without any awareness.

‘I remember thinking: “He will never feel what I’m feeling. He can’t understand emotion”.’

When Josh was three, a health visitor witnessed him having a violent tantrum and referred Josh to specialists at Frenchay hospital, where he underwent twice-weekly diagnostic tests over a six-week period.

‘At the end, the specialists gave me a depressing report explaining that Josh was seriously disabled with autism,’ says Renitha.

Autistic children are often withdrawn, mute and prone to tantrums

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects more than 100,000 children. It is not known what causes it, but it affects a child’s ability to communicate and relate to others.

They are often withdrawn, mute, unable to make eye contact and prone to disturbed sleep and tantrums.

Many never take part in mainstream education and some require full-time care.

Indeed, Josh’s specialists wanted him to be sent to a special school.

‘They did not think he would cope in mainstream school,’ says Renitha.

However, she and her husband decided to reject that advice.

‘We have nothing against special schools, but we thought we would see if mainstream school could work for him first,’ she says.

Nowadays, the difference in Josh would strike outsiders as a massive change.

‘He loves maths and can play Grade 3 pieces on the piano,’ says Renitha.

‘Last year, he made me a beautiful bracelet for Mother’s Day. It made me realise how much things had changed.

‘If anyone is hurt, he will go up to them and ask why and try to give them a cuddle or cheer them up.

'If he is unsure why someone is upset, he will ask questions to try to understand.’

Josh’s transformation is far from unique, according to the Pediatrics study.

The researchers questioned 1,366 parents of children aged 17 and younger who had been previously diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Of these, 453 parents said that their children no longer had the condition and had grown out of it since the age of seven.

The lead researcher, Dr Andrew Zimmerman, from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, accepts the findings might partly reflect the fact that some of the children may have been misdiagnosed.

But he stresses that these are only a minority, and his results should certainly not be put down to misdiagnosis alone.

‘It is not unusual to see a child start out with more severe autism and then become more moderate and even mild as the years go by,’ he says.

‘A lot of the kids are improving. We don’t know why, except that there’s a lot of mold-ability of the developing brain.’

Dr Zimmerman’s conclusion is backed by previous studies which have suggested that between 3 per cent to 25 per cent of autistic children ‘recover’.

However, it is not a view shared by the UK’s National Autistic Society.

Dr Georgina Gomez-de-la-Cuesta, who leads research at the society, says that although children’s behaviour can improve with intensive support, ‘autism is a lifelong and disabling condition — a child with autism will grow up to be an adult with autism.’

But Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist at Cambridge University and one of Britain’s leading experts on autism, agrees that children with the condition can improve significantly.

‘This is not to say the autism goes away or has been cured,’ he says.

‘People with autism are just like anyone else and can be capable of learning.

‘This can change the nature of their brains — because, when any child learns, this process must make changes in their brain. That happens with all of us.’

Is this what happened with Renitha’s son, Josh?

‘Some people say he has grown out of it,’ says Renitha. ‘But they have no idea of the hard work that has been involved.’

Instead, she believes the improvements are a result of her intense efforts to teach Josh to cope with his condition.

She read in a magazine that, in some people with autism, the left and right hemispheres of their brain appear to not ‘connect’ as effectively as people without the condition.

Renitha also read that playing a musical instrument is one of the few activities that activate the left and right hemispheres at the same time.

So Renitha decided to teach Josh the piano when he was only four.

‘To begin with, it was a battle even to get him to sit on the stool,’ she says.

‘But I believe that is one of the things that has helped him develop his brain and to understand the world.’

Josh also had a lot of problems with his coordination and so Renitha spent hours crawling and climbing with him.

‘Josh’s coordination has improved enough for him to start tae kwon-do lessons — although this was not easy,’ says Renitha.

‘He has a very supportive instructor and Josh is now determined to get his black belt one day.

‘I never knew if any of the strategies I used would work. But they were all worth a try. The alternative — Josh being locked in his little world for ever — was far more scary and depressing.’

Deborah Fein, a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, has studied many autistic children and found that between 10 and 20 per cent can improve so significantly that their diagnosis may change from autism to the less severe form of the condition, Asperger’s syndrome.

But most of the children change only after years of intensive parental support. Sadly, she says, it is not possible to predict which children will improve.

And she cautions that recovery is ‘not a realistic expectation for the majority of kids, but parents should know it can happen’.

Certainly, Josh is very different nowadays. ‘He couldn’t talk. Now he doesn’t stop talking,’ says Renitha. ‘He learnt numbers very quickly and loves maths.’

But Renitha is adamant that Josh will always be autistic. He is in a mainstream school but he needs support to comprehend his lessons, she says: ‘Children don’t grow out of being autistic, but some can learn to live with it.

‘The danger is that if parents think their children will grow out of it, they might not put in the effort required to make a difference.’ ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Can some children simply 'grow out' of autism? One mother tells how her son's life has been transformed

Brainwaves 'show risk from age of six months'

Brainwaves 'show risk from age of six months' - It may be possible to detect autism at a much earlier age than previously thought, according to an international team of researchers.

A study published in Current Biology identified differences in infants' brainwaves from as early as six months.

Behavioural symptoms of autism typically develop between a child's first and second birthdays.

Autism charities said identifying the disorder at an earlier stage could help with treatment.

It is thought that one in every 100 children has an autism spectrum disorder in the UK. It affects more boys than girls. While there is no "cure", education and behavioural programmes can help.

One of the researchers, Prof Mark Johnson from Birkbeck College, University of London, told the BBC: "The prevailing view is that if we are able to intervene before the onset of full symptoms, such as a training programme, at least in some cases we can maybe alleviate full symptoms."

Spotting autism earlier can help with treatment, it is believed

Autism symptoms

• Repetitive behaviour and resistance to changes in routine
• Obsessions with particular objects or routines
• Poor co-ordination
• Difficulties with fine movement control (especially in Asperger syndrome)
• Absence of normal facial expression and body language
• Lack of eye contact
• Tendency to spend time alone, with very few friends
• Lack of imaginative play

His team looked for the earliest signs of autism in 104 children aged between six and 10 months. Half were known to be at risk of the disorder because they had on older sibling who had been diagnosed with autism. The rest were low risk.

Older children with autism can show a lack of eye contact, so the babies were shown pictures of people's faces that switched between looking at or away from the baby.

Sensors attached to the scalp looked for differences in brain activity.

In low-risk babies, or high-risk babies that did not develop autism, there was a large difference in the brainwaves when looking at each type of image.

There was a much smaller difference in the brainwaves of babies who developed autism.

'Very effective'

Prof Johnson said: "It is important to note it is not a 100% predictor. We had babies who flagged up warning signs who did not develop autism."

There were also babies who did develop autism who had low-risk brainwaves. The test would need to be more accurate before it was used routinely.

Prof Tony Charman, Centre for Research in Autism and Education at the Institute of Education, said: "Differences in the use of eye gaze to regulate social interaction are already a well-recognised early feature in many children with autism from the second year of life.

"Future studies will be required to determine whether measurements of brain function such as those used in our study might one day play a role in helping to identify children at an even earlier age."

Christine Swabey from the charity Autistica said: "The hope is that this important research will lead to improved identification and access to services for future generations.

"Ultimately, the earlier we can identify autism and provide early intervention, the better the outcomes will be."

Dr Georgina Gomez-de-la-Cuesta from the National Autistic Society said: "Further research to investigate these differences will eventually lead to earlier recognition of the condition.

"Early intervention is very effective in supporting those with autism, so recognition in infancy can only be beneficial in helping individuals with autism reach their full potential.

"However, this important research is still in its early stages, and larger studies looking at several early markers of autism will be necessary before a robust clinical diagnosis could be possible at such a young age." ( bbc.co.uk )

READ MORE - Brainwaves 'show risk from age of six months'

Babies' Brain Responses to Eye Contact

Babies' Brain Responses to Eye Contact - The way that babies as young as six months look at the eyes of other people may be an early sign of autism, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at brain scans of infants as they were shown pictures of faces, and those who were later diagnosed with autism showed marked differences in brain activity from those who were not later diagnosed with the condition when the eyes in the pictures were directed at the infants.

The study included 104 babies who either had a higher risk of developing autism, because they had a sibling with the condition, or had no family history of autism.

"This study takes us a step further in understanding what goes on in the brain that subsequently causes autism to emerge in children," said study researcher Mayada Elsabbagh, a scientist at McGill University in Canada.

The study is published today (Jan. 26) in Current Biology.

Infant brain responses could be an early sign

About 1 in 110 children in the U.S. has autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parents who have one child with autism are 2 to 8 percent more likely to have a second child with the disorder.

Diagnoses of autism are based on children's social behavior, and are generally made in children 2 years and older.

But parents often know something is wrong before that age.

"As early as infancy, they notice that something is different, but it's difficult to have it confirmed with a diagnosis until the child ages," Elsabbagh said.

Study findings suggest there might be a way to diagnose the disorder earlier based on infant brain responses, and that treatments for the condition may be more effective when given at earlier ages.

"The next step is to increase our knowledge on how to diagnose earlier, and provide access to earlier intervention, which we know can reduce the impact of the symptoms," Elsabbagh said.

Making eye contact could be the key

In the new study, researchers recruited families from the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings, which tracked infants starting at 5 months of age until they were 3 years old.

They tested 54 infants who had a sibling with autism, and so were at high risk of developing the condition, and 50 infants who did not, and so were the control group.

The infants, at 6 to 10 months, were shown faces that switched from looking at them to looking away from them, a way of gauging their response to eye contact with another person.

Researchers used sensors placed on the infants' scalps to measure their brain in response to eye gaze directed toward or away from the baby.

They found that of the 54 infants at higher risk, the 17 who were diagnosed with autism by 3 years of age tended to have different brain responses from the 50 infants who were not at risk, and were not later diagnosed with the condition.

But Elsabbagh cautioned that the study's findings were imperfect.

"Not every child that developed autism has brain function that showed a huge difference," she said. "It could be some other factor that prevents autism from emerging."

Researchers also only looked at children who were at high risk of autism.

"These children are at higher risk than children in the general population — children who don't have an older sibling affected by autism," said Alycia Halladay, director of research for Autism Speaks, a group that advocates for autism research, who was not involved with the study.

"So we don't know if these findings are applicable to other children with autism, or to just those who are at risk," she said.

But Halladay did point out that the study raised interesting questions about the role of early social behaviors like looking or tracking a child's eye gaze.

"Further research needs to be done on whether brain activity can be the basis for early intervention," she said. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Babies' Brain Responses to Eye Contact

'Inner Dialogue' Might Aid People With Autism

'Inner Dialogue' Might Aid People With Autism --- Learning to "talk things through in their head" could help people with autism make plans and complete complex daily tasks, researchers say.

These skills might increase the likelihood that people with autism can live independent, flexible lives, according to the study led by a team at Durham University in England.

The researchers compared how 15 high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder and 16 adults without the disorder completed a test that measures planning ability as well as a short-term memory task.

Autism is characterized by repetitive behaviors and difficulty with communication and social interactions. The researchers said that the use or non-use of thinking in words is strongly associated with the degree of communication problems that are rooted in early childhood.

The researchers said that children with autism have the mechanism for using "inner speech" but they don't always use it in the same way as typically developing children.

Teaching children with autism how to encourage inner speech, such as encouraging them to describe their actions out loud, may make a difference, the researchers said. This type of approach has previously been shown to increase mental flexibility among typically developing children.

The study authors also suggested that children with autism could benefit from verbal learning of their daily school schedules, rather than using written or other visual timetables.

The study appeared online Jan. 25 in the journal Development and Psychopathology.

"Most people will 'think in words' when trying to solve problems, which helps with planning or particularly complicated tasks," study author David Williams, a lecturer in the department of psychology at Durham University, said in a university news release. "Young, typically developing children tend to talk out loud to guide themselves when they face challenging tasks."

However, it is only from about age 7 that "they talk to themselves in their head and, thus, think in words for problem-solving," he added. "How good people are at this skill is in part determined by their communication experiences as a young child." ( HealthDay News )

READ MORE - 'Inner Dialogue' Might Aid People With Autism

Talking things through in your head may help autism

Talking things through in your head may help autism -- Teaching children with autism to "talk things through" in their heads may help them solve tricky day-to-day tasks and could increase the chances of them living independent lives when they grow up, British scientists said Wednesday.

Psychologists who studied adults with autism found that the mechanism for using "inner speech," or talking things through in your head is intact, but they don't always use it in the same way as typically developing people do.

The researchers found that the tendency to "think in words" is also strongly linked to the extent of a person's communication skills, which are rooted in early childhood.

The results suggest teaching autistic children how to develop inner speech skills may help them cope with daily tasks later in life. It also suggests children with autism may do better at school if they are encouraged to learn their daily timetable verbally rather than using visual plans, which is currently a common approach.

Autism, which affects around one percent of the population worldwide, includes a spectrum of disorders ranging from mental retardation and a profound inability to communicate, to relatively milder symptoms such as seen in people with high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome.

Among core features of autism are poor communication skills and difficulties with social engagement.

"Most people will 'think in words' when trying to solve problems, which helps with planning or particularly complicated tasks," said David Williams of Durham University's department of psychology, who led the study.

Typically developing children tend to talk out loud to guide themselves through tricky tasks, and only from about 7 years old do they talk to themselves in their heads to try to solve problems, he said. How good people are at it is partly determined by their communication experiences as a young child.

Williams said children with autism often miss out on the early communicative exchanges, which may explain their tendency not to use inner speech when they are older. He said the lack of inner speech use might also contribute to some of the repetitive behaviors which are common in people with autism.

"Children with autism probably aren't doing this thinking in their heads, but are continuing on with a visual thinking strategy," Williams said in a telephone interview.

"So this is the time, at around six or seven years old, that these teaching methods would be most helpful."

The study, conducted by researchers at Durham, Bristol and City University London and published in the Development and Psychopathology journal, involved 15 adults with high-functioning autism and 16 neurotypical adults for comparison.

The volunteers were asked to complete a test of planning ability for which typical people would normally use "thinking in words" strategies.

When the two groups were asked to do the task while also repeating out loud a certain word -- such as "Tuesday" or "Thursday" -- designed to distract them, the control group found the task much harder, while the autistic group were not bothered by the distraction.

"In the people with autism, it had no effect whatsoever," Williams explained. This suggests that, unlike neurotypical adults, participants with autism do not normally use inner speech to help themselves plan. ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Talking things through in your head may help autism

Can Low Birth Weight Raise Autism Risk?

Can Low Birth Weight Raise Autism Risk? -- After studying data on more than 3,700 pairs of identical twins, researchers from Northwestern University found that low birth weight was associated with more than triple the risk for autism spectrum disorder among twins in which autism only affected one of the children.

"That only one twin is affected by ASD [autism spectrum disorder] in some identical twin pairs suggests that environmental factors may play a role either independently or in interaction with autism risk genes," study author Molly Losh, director of Northwestern's Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Laboratory, said in a university news release.

"Our study of discordant twins -- twin pairs in which only one twin was affected by ASD -- found birth weight to be a very strong predictor of autism spectrum disorder," she added.

The study, which was released online in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Psychological Medicine, used data from the Swedish Twin Registry's Child and Adolescent Twin Study.

In analyzing twins in which one baby was more than 14 ounces, or at least 15 percent heavier at birth than the other, the researchers found the risk for autism rose 13 percent for every 3.5 ounce drop in birth weight.

The study results suggested that birth weight could play a role in the complex causes of autism by interacting with a child's underlying genetic predisposition, or likelihood, of developing the condition, the researchers said.

Losh added that because autism is a developmental disorder involving early brain development, prenatal and perinatal environmental factors, such as birth weight, may be especially important.

The researchers noted, however, their findings may not apply to children who are not part of a multiple-birth pregnancy.

While the study found an association between birth weight and autism risk, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. ( HealthDay News )

READ MORE - Can Low Birth Weight Raise Autism Risk?

Little Known About How Autism Affects Teen Drivers

Little Known About How Autism Affects Teen Drivers -- Two-thirds of driving-age American teens with a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder are currently driving or plan to drive, and these teens have a number of common characteristics, a new study says.

People with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders, or HFASDs, have subtle impairments in social interaction, communication, motor skills and coordination. They also have difficulty regulating emotions.

Many of these skills are used when driving, noted the researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies.

"Little is known about how HFASDs affect a person's ability to drive safely," study lead author and developmental pediatrician Dr. Patty Huang said in a hospital news release.

"Over the past decade, the rate of children diagnosed with an HFASD has increased, meaning that more of those kids are now approaching driving age. Car crashes are the number one cause of death for teenagers, so it is important that we understand how HFASDs impact driving and how to develop appropriate educational and evaluation tools," she noted.

Huang and her colleagues surveyed nearly 300 parents of teens with HFASDs and identified a number of common characteristics among teens most likely to become drivers, including:

• Being at least 17 years old
• Enrollment in full-time regular education
• Planning to attend college
• Having held a paid job outside the home
• Having a parent who has taught another teen to drive
• Inclusion of driving-related goals in his or her individualized education plan.

The study was published in the January issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

"It's very common for parents of kids with HFASDs to ask how they should handle learning to drive. Knowing these characteristics can help us prepare anticipatory guidance for families," Huang said. "In Pennsylvania, it's the law for teens to have a doctor's sign-off before they can get a learner's permit and that makes it easier to address driving-specific concerns. In states that don't have those laws, it's an issue that physicians should be prepared to address with their patients and their parents." ( HealthDay News )

READ MORE - Little Known About How Autism Affects Teen Drivers

Autism May Be Helped by ‘Talking Things Through’ in Thoughts

Autism May Be Helped by ‘Talking Things Through’ in Thoughts - Last week, news that changes to the diagnostic criteria for autism could cut the number of diagnoses was met with a mixed reaction, and many were concerned that those affected by the changes might go without much needed services to manage the condition.

This week, research has emerged that some simple tools could be effective in dealing with autism when implemented at an early age. One of the differences between thought processes in people with autism has to do with visual thinking versus thinking “in words,” and encouraging children at crucial educational stages to “talk things through” in words could help many deal with the effects of autism even as adults, research reveals.

The new data comes from a study in the UK, and British researchers found that while the ability to process thoughts in words exists, many autistic children “don’t always use it in the same way as typically developing people do.” Durham University’s department of psychology lead the study, and researcher David Williams commented on the findings:

“Most people will ‘think in words’ when trying to solve problems, which helps with planning or particularly complicated tasks… Children with autism probably aren’t doing this thinking in their heads, but are continuing on with a visual thinking strategy… So this is the time, at around six or seven years old, that these teaching methods would be most helpful.”

The study was published in this month’s Development and Psychopathology Journal, and was conducted at Durham, Bristol and City University London. 15 adults with high-functioning autism and 16 neurotypical adults participated. ( inquisitr.com )

READ MORE - Autism May Be Helped by ‘Talking Things Through’ in Thoughts

New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many

New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study Suggests - Proposed changes in the definition of autism would sharply reduce the skyrocketing rate at which the disorder is diagnosed and might make it harder for many people who would no longer meet the criteria to get health, educational and social services, a new analysis suggests.

The definition is now being reassessed by an expert panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, which is completing work on the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the first major revision in 17 years. The D.S.M., as the manual is known, is the standard reference for mental disorders, driving research, treatment and insurance decisions. Most experts expect that the new manual will narrow the criteria for autism; the question is how sharply.

The results of the new analysis are preliminary, but they offer the most drastic estimate of how tightening the criteria for autism could affect the rate of diagnosis. For years, many experts have privately contended that the vagueness of the current criteria for autism and related disorders like Asperger syndrome was contributing to the increase in the rate of diagnoses — which has ballooned to one child in 100, according to some estimates.

The psychiatrists’ association is wrestling with one of the most agonizing questions in mental health — where to draw the line between unusual and abnormal — and its decisions are sure to be wrenching for some families. At a time when school budgets for special education are stretched, the new diagnosis could herald more pitched battles. Tens of thousands of people receive state-backed services to help offset the disorders’ disabling effects, which include sometimes severe learning and social problems, and the diagnosis is in many ways central to their lives. Close networks of parents have bonded over common experiences with children; and the children, too, may grow to find a sense of their own identity in their struggle with the disorder.

Mary Meyer, right, of Ramsey, N.J., said that a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome was crucial for her daughter, Susan, 37

The proposed changes would probably exclude people with a diagnosis who were higher functioning. “I’m very concerned about the change in diagnosis, because I wonder if my daughter would even qualify,” said Mary Meyer of Ramsey, N.J. A diagnosis of Asperger syndrome was crucial to helping her daughter, who is 37, gain access to services that have helped tremendously. “She’s on disability, which is partly based on the Asperger’s; and I’m hoping to get her into supportive housing, which also depends on her diagnosis.”

The new analysis, presented Thursday at a meeting of the Icelandic Medical Association, opens a debate about just how many people the proposed diagnosis would affect.

The changes would narrow the diagnosis so much that it could effectively end the autism surge, said Dr. Fred R. Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine and an author of the new analysis of the proposal. “We would nip it in the bud.”

Experts working for the Psychiatric Association on the manual’s new definition — a group from which Dr. Volkmar resigned early on — strongly disagree about the proposed changes’ impact. “I don’t know how they’re getting those numbers,” Catherine Lord, a member of the task force working on the diagnosis, said about Dr. Volkmar’s report.

Previous projections have concluded that far fewer people would be excluded under the change, said Dr. Lord, director of the Institute for Brain Development, a joint project of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Columbia University Medical Center and the New York Center for Autism.

Disagreement about the effect of the new definition will almost certainly increase scrutiny of the finer points of the psychiatric association’s changes to the manual. The revisions are about 90 percent complete and will be final by December, according to Dr. David J. Kupfer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and chairman of the task force making the revisions.

At least a million children and adults have a diagnosis of autism or a related disorder, like Asperger syndrome or “pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified,” also known as P.D.D.-N.O.S. People with Asperger’s or P.D.D.-N.O.S. endure some of the same social struggles as those with autism but do not meet the definition for the full-blown version. The proposed change would consolidate all three diagnoses under one category, autism spectrum disorder, eliminating Asperger syndrome and P.D.D.-N.O.S. from the manual. Under the current criteria, a person can qualify for the diagnosis by exhibiting 6 or more of 12 behaviors; under the proposed definition, the person would have to exhibit 3 deficits in social interaction and communication and at least 2 repetitive behaviors, a much narrower menu.

Dr. Kupfer said the changes were an attempt to clarify these variations and put them under one name. Some advocates have been concerned about the proposed changes.

“Our fear is that we are going to take a big step backward,” said Lori Shery, president of the Asperger Syndrome Education Network. “If clinicians say, ‘These kids don’t fit the criteria for an autism spectrum diagnosis,’ they are not going to get the supports and services they need, and they’re going to experience failure.”

Mark Roithmayr, president of the advocacy organization Autism Speaks, said that the proposed diagnosis should bring needed clarity but that the effect it would have on services was not yet clear. “We need to carefully monitor the impact of these diagnostic changes on access to services and ensure that no one is being denied the services they need,” Mr. Roithmayr said by e-mail. “Some treatments and services are driven solely by a person’s diagnosis, while other services may depend on other criteria such as age, I.Q. level or medical history.”

In the new analysis, Dr. Volkmar, along with Brian Reichow and James McPartland, both at Yale, used data from a large 1993 study that served as the basis for the current criteria. They focused on 372 children and adults who were among the highest functioning and found that overall, only 45 percent of them would qualify for the proposed autism spectrum diagnosis now under review.

The focus on a high-functioning group may have slightly exaggerated that percentage, the authors acknowledge. The likelihood of being left out under the new definition depended on the original diagnosis: about a quarter of those identified with classic autism in 1993 would not be so identified under the proposed criteria; about three-quarters of those with Asperger syndrome would not qualify; and 85 percent of those with P.D.D.-N.O.S. would not.

Dr. Volkmar presented the preliminary findings on Thursday. The researchers will publish a broader analysis, based on a larger and more representative sample of 1,000 cases, later this year. Dr. Volkmar said that although the proposed diagnosis would be for disorders on a spectrum and implies a broader net, it focuses tightly on “classically autistic” children on the more severe end of the scale. “The major impact here is on the more cognitively able,” he said.

Dr. Lord said that the study numbers are probably exaggerated because the research team relied on old data, collected by doctors who were not aware of what kinds of behaviors the proposed definition requires. “It’s not that the behaviors didn’t exist, but that they weren’t even asking about them — they wouldn’t show up at all in the data,” Dr. Lord said.

Dr. Volkmar acknowledged as much but said that problems transferring the data could not account for the large differences in rates. ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many